Kieran Molloy - a quiet champion forged in Oughterard
Kieran Molloy at the boxing gym in Oughterard
“I’ve been through a lot of setbacks in my career... been promised title fights, a fight at Pearse Stadium which was cancelled. But boxing teaches you how to deal with it, you have to become numb to it so it makes you stronger.”
Twenty-six kilometres north of Galway City lies the town of Oughterard, notable for its fishing heritage as well as its 'Quiet Man Bridge', having been used as one of the filming locations for the 1950s Hollywood classic starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.
Upon approach to the town centre, a concrete connection to sport is clear as the golf course and GAA grounds are among the first landmarks to welcome you to this close-knit community in the gateway to Connemara.
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As its unique selection of cafés and local stores catch your eye along the main street, it’s easy to overlook one of the most important and long-standing staples of the community, a stable that has produced Irish and European champions for over 60 years which sits right in the heart of this picturesque village.
The rain patters against the windows of Oughterard Boxing Club as manager Gearóid Clancy prepares to bring a group of 30 underage fighters to a tournament at Rosmuc in the Connemara Gaeltacht. A gust of wind blows across the padded flooring as Oughterard’s newest national hero enters the gym, an intriguing silver case in hand, some 22 years after he first followed his brothers into what would become his second home on the path to becoming a future European Champion.
In March, Kieran Molloy was crowned IBF European Welterweight Champion after he defeated Dutch national champion Xavier Kohlen by unanimous points decision in Belfast. The 27-year-old southpaw, who honed his craft with the Oughterard club alongside his brothers and his coach/father Stephen, dominated for the majority of his 10-round bout to give the judges an easy decision and hand Molloy his 14th victory in as many professional fights.
Oughterard may be synonymous with The Quiet Man, but Molloy was far from quiet once he entered the ring as a child.
“I suppose that was the start of it all for me. I fell in love with the sport, I really enjoyed the training side of it and just wanted to improve all the time. I was only five years old so I was very young, a quiet and fairly shy kid... but as my dad will say, once I entered the ring I wasn’t shy any more.”
That same shy kid went on to become the first boxer in the club’s history to win a National Senior Elite title, a landmark for this small club. Appropriately, on the wall over Molloy’s shoulder is a mural that inspires over 80 young boxers daily from Oughterard and the surrounding region.
“Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion. I probably started sparring at seven, but I would have been in against eight, nine, ten-year-olds. I felt I was ahead of kids my own age, but it all came down to my dad and the coaches Raymond and Thomas Lee putting a lot of effort into me because I suppose they saw the potential, and when you can pick up these fundamentals and skills at a young age, you're already ahead of the game.”
Molloy now fights out of London under trainer Charlie Beatt and manager Tom Stalker, the latter a former Olympian having fought for Team GB at the 2012 games. Prior to turning professional, Molloy was coached and developed by his father Stephen, who recalls to the Irish Examiner one of the first moments he knew that Kieran had the potential to forge a career in amateur and professional boxing.
“My son Colm was at the High Performance in Dublin, he’s two years older. I brought Kieran up to watch, I remember the director talking about how well Colm was doing and I said ‘wait until you see the next lad come through’. He asked me if he was here, I said yes and within a few hours he beat three Irish champions and had a very close spar with a European champion. That was it, he was on the team straight away.”
Boxing has always been in the Molloy family, both Kieran and Colm holding simultaneous Irish titles at ages 12 and 14 respectively. Stephen recalls not only his sons’ early achievements in the ring, but also how their relentless competitive spirit was occasionally brought back to their family home in Kilannin where brothers Kieran, Colm and Stephen junior all grew up as kids.
“I remember their grandad once being asked, what was the best fight you’ve ever seen? He said it was Kieran and Colm sparring each other in the kitchen. Whenever they had an argument, the gloves were put on as a way of solving it.”
Oughterard coach Clancy echoes how boxing has a profound influence on shaping the growth and personal development of young people from all age groups, and how the club plays a key role not only in terms of health and fitness, but also in terms of social skills and discipline.
“I always knew I’d fall back into the club when I got home from abroad. We’re a tight-knit group, and my big thing with the kids here is confidence. I always say, whether they win or not, what boxing can do for them - temperament, social skills, job interviews, meeting new people. Boxing is one of the scariest things you do whether you’re a kid or an adult, but if you can face that, almost everything else in life becomes easier.”
Oughterard Boxing club was founded in 1964 by local man Johnny O’Connor, largely as a means to keep local youth and GAA players fit over the winter but within a few years produced their first Irish champion in Mairtín Lee and went on to bring home over 40 national titles across multiple age groups.
Clancy, himself a former professional boxer in Australia and winner of the WBF Australasian Super Lightweight title in 2017, recalls the influence of the Lee family and his own late father Gerry who were instrumental in the the club’s development. Currently the club is over capacity in terms of members and has a long waiting list, such is the popularity of boxing in the town and the surrounding areas.
Clancy describes how the club are in desperate need of a new facility, with works underway on identifying a suitable site before going out to the community for support and funding.
“We have kids coming from as far as Clifden, Renvyle, Moycullen, Barna... in the last 10 years this is our fourth different venue. We get funding for gear but nothing else because we don’t own the property. In our ideal scenario we're looking for a big place with two rings, punch bags, showers which we've never had. We hate turning people away, we could be turning away the next Olympic champion, that’s what kills us but as you can see from the size of the gym here, if we have 25 kids in here the place is jammed.”
The Olympics are a relative sore spot for Molloy, with Covid pushing back qualifiers by 18 months, by the end of which Molloy had already turned professional and therefore was ineligible. That said, the European Welterweight champion credits boxing for enabling him to deal with setbacks in life, and how that chain of events set him on the path he is on today.
Initially, he turning down the offer to turn professional at age 18 under Frank Warren and Ricky Hatton, before later signing with US-based promoter Top Rank in 2021, the same agency that represents Irish former World Champion Michael Conlan, “The Olympics were a huge goal, I had just beaten Paddy Donovan in the Elite Championship Final (2019), then another fighter who made the semi-final was selected for the World Championships. That left a slightly sour taste in my mouth, and it’s when I knew I was going to turn pro soon after.”
Though now a European champion, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Molloy who discusses how setbacks and challenges have been omnipresent throughout his career. It’s clear, however, that his mentality and approach are partly engrained from his experience growing up boxing in Oughterard with minimal facilities and boxer development largely reliant on the coaches and on the fighters themselves.
“We might not have had the equipment that a lot of gyms around the country would have, but the system has worked over the years. We've produced a lot of international boxers, a lot of Irish champions throughout the years since it opened. They’ve got some fantastic coaches here, Gearóid and Sean Clancy, Thomas and Marvin Lee, my dad as well... the only reason I'm here is because of the fundamentals, it was because of all the years of hard work as a kid. This is where every boxer's dream starts, it's in the local boxing gyms.”
A boxer’s dream indeed, the Oughterard clubman going from strength to strength since turning professional with a 14-0-0 record (seven knockouts) and now a European title quite literally under his belt. The dream doesn’t end there however, with Molloy’s sights now firmly set on winning a World Title within the next two years.
“After this fight it might usually be a break but it’s only made me so much hungrier. I’m really excited for what’s next, I can’t wait to get back and start preparing for the next fight, the next opponent, the next occasion.. I know I can give much more and that excites me, that last fight wasn’t personally my best performance and I know I can be a lot better than that.”
All eyes in Oughterard and beyond will be watching on eagerly, hoping their newest local hero can once again return with a World Championship belt over his shoulder.
With talks of a London showdown in July, all eyes in Oughterard and beyond will be watching on eagerly, hoping their newest local hero can once again return with a World Championship belt over his shoulder.
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